Review Officer Appointed; New-Substance Waivers

Summary#

The Canada Gazette notice records two main Environment Department actions: the appointment of Mr. Justin Duncan to the roster of review officers under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, effective April 1, 2025, and a set of formal waivers where the Minister allowed companies to skip some required test data for new living organisms and chemical substances. The waivers are listed by company and by the specific kinds of test data that were waived.

What it does#

• Appoints Mr. Justin Duncan to the roster of review officers for a term of three years, starting April 1, 2025. This is an administrative appointment under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.
• Publishes a list of waivers granted under the Act that reduce the information companies must submit when they plan to import or make:
  • Living organisms (waivers list companies and which ecological or antibiotic-susceptibility tests were waived).
  • Chemical substances (waivers list companies and which physical-chemical or biodegradation tests were waived).
• Notes that the Minister of the Environment makes waiver decisions in consultation with the Minister of Health, and points readers to the New Substances waivers web page for more information.

Who's affected#

• Companies listed in the notice for living-organism waivers, including AskBio Inc., Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc., Boeringer-Ingelheim Canada Ltd., Future Fields, Janssen Inc., PCI Pharma Services, Qeen Biotechnologies, and Vaccigen.
• Companies listed for substance waivers, including 3M Healthcare Canada Company Limited, Azelis Canada Inc., Cabot Canada Ltd., Covestro LLC, Milliken Chemical, NextStar Energy Inc., and PPG Canada Inc.
• Regulators and reviewers at Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada, who assess new-substance notifications and decide on future waiver requests.
• Anyone relying on environmental or safety test data for these specific new substances or organisms—for example, downstream manufacturers, environmental groups, researchers, and potentially nearby communities. The notice does not name the specific organisms or substances involved, so the exact scope of each waiver is not shown publicly here.

Why it matters#

• Waivers let companies avoid some tests that would normally be required before new organisms or substances enter Canada. That can speed development or import processes and lower companies’ testing costs.
• Fewer required tests can mean less publicly available data about environmental or health effects. That matters to researchers, regulators, and the public when assessing risk.
• The announcement shows how the government balances regulatory burden and data needs: decisions are made case-by-case and in consultation with health authorities. The notice also says about 300 new-substance declarations are submitted yearly and roughly 100 waivers are granted each year, giving a sense of how common this practice is.